It was early 2005, and two of the best American Football games have just come out - ESPN NFL 2k5 and Madden 2005 spoiled gamers with their ability to bring the sport to life, and it was hard to imagine how things could possibly get better. But the good times weren't to last, because in that same year the sports game industry was about to change forever.
This is a story about 2K and EA: the two companies that would dominate the sports genre for the next 20 years. While EA had a rich history as a developer and publisher dating back to the early 80s, 2K Sports was created in 2005 by the holding company Take-Two, which acquired the '2K' brand (and NFL 2K developer Visual Concepts) from Sega in a $24 million deal.
Following the acquisition, the NFL 2K series was halted, and EA's Madden became the de facto yearly football title. Madden, despite his wide recognition as a commentator for the game, was far cheaper to licence than a player would be, and his unique background as both a player and coach made his input invaluable in the early days of the game's development and its pursuit of a realistic simulation.
But up until 2004, both NFL 2K and Madden existed alongside each other just fine, in addition to other simulation games such as NFL Gameday and arcade titles like NFL Street. What took place in late 2004 changed all that. With NFL 2K always a distant second to Madden in terms of sales, they opted to change the rules at the last moment, and released NFL 2K5 several weeks ahead of schedule, and ahead of Madden.
The game launched with a $19.99 price tag at launch, something both unheard of at the time, and even now. It was not only cheap, but a great game too. Word of mouth spread quickly around how great 2K’s title was that year, forcing EA to take notice.
In an attempt to salvage their situation, EA dropped the price of Madden 2005 from $49.99 (standard price in the 6th generation of consoles) to $29.99. For the price of one of these games just a year prior, you could now purchase both.
While fans of the genre were thrilled to receive two generational sports games for the price of one, the NFL was not as happy. Their two biggest flagship releases being sold for so cheap was a bad look, as this was something usually reserved for either lower-budget games or ones that were not expected to sell well. In an attempt to effectively crush the competition (and allow for less competitive pricing), EA paid the NFL for an exclusive licence to use the league’s intellectual property, including players names, likenesses, and individual teams.
It’s still not entirely known whether or not 2K even had the chance to bid for the NFL licence, or whether the NFL specifically chose EA because of their longer track record with the league. As a result, 2K then went and bought an exclusive licence with Major League Baseball, causing EA’s far better MVP Baseball series to be shut down. Licensing goes a long way in dictating a sports series' success, and with billion dollar companies going at it in a pissing match, fans were the ones who ended up getting rained on
From that point on, Madden had a much different approach to development. Without major competition from other NFL titles, the series creatively stagnated after a few years (though it still managed to knock out some gems with its quirky Madden Wii games). The jump to the 7th generation of consoles was disastrous, with Madden 06 being one of the worst received major titles of that year.
Visual Concepts, now working under Take-Two Interactive and the new '2K Sports' brand, attempted a comeback to the genre in mid-2007 with All-Pro Football 2K8. Using a new engine and foregoing the NFL licence with the likenesses of former NFL legends such as John Elway and OJ Simpson (who was part of the fictitious ‘New Jersey Assassins’ team, which rather hilariously - in a terrible sort of way - had a throat-slice touchdown celebration). The core gameplay felt as great as ever, but the lack of a licence caused the game to die unceremoniously. It didn’t help matters that Madden 2008, the release they were competing with, was considered the best Madden of the generation.
Some have argued the genre has never recovered from the NFL’s decision in that fateful fall of 2004. There has been cause for optimism in the last year, however. 2K has been greenlighted to create a more arcade-based football game with an NFL licence, while EA re-upped their simulation-based contract. Even EA’s NCAA Football franchise is seeing a comeback in the summer of 2023, for the first time since Ed O’Bannon and the NCAA’s lawsuit shutting down that series in 2014.
The NFL and EA sabotaged the football game genre for years, but the passion of the developers has still resulted in some terrific yearly titles. Changes on the way may bring on a football game renaissance that we have not seen since that magical year in 2004.